My Contribution to the Eons Skin Gallery
With the release of "phase III" of our Skins project, it is possible to name and save multiple skins for your personal use. Many of our members like to change their skin on a regular basis. With this new feature, it's easy to work on a skin before you apply it to your profile. And when you change your skin, your old skin remains on file, in case you ever want to reuse it.
The link on your profile page has been changed from "Edit My Skin" to "Change My Skin" to account for what we think will probably be a more popular pastime in the future: Selecting your "skin du jour." Instead of taking you to the Skin Editor, the link now takes you to your "My Skins" page.
Your personal Skin Collection: The My Skins page
If you are looking for the Skin Editor to work on your current skin, one convenient way to get there is the "Edit my current skin" link at the top of the My Skins page.
Create a new skin (from scratch) by clicking the "Create a new skin" link at the top of the My Skins page. This will take you into the Skin Editor with a clean slate. Don't worry: Your current skin(s) are safe.
The My Skins page displays a list of your personal skins and shows a mini-preview for each. For each personal skin, the following actions are available:
* Use it: Select the skin and apply it to the Profile
* Edit it: Load it into the Skin Editor, Make changes, Preview, Save, etc.
* Delete it: Get rid of it, forever!
* Submit it: Make it available to others via the Eons Skin Gallery (see below)
If you have a skin that you think other Eons Members might want to use on their Profiles - and if you don't mind sharing it, submit it to the Eons Skin Gallery. The only prerequisite is that the skin must have a name.
The Eons Skin Gallery page
The Eons Skin Gallery is where any Eons member can go to grab a ready-made Skin for their profile. Our hope is that even the "technically challenged" will be able to find a skin that makes their profile feel more like home!
The Gallery page contains a paginated list of all the available skins. The list can be sorted by skin name, date submitted, or "featured" status. Your preferred sorting mode is remembered until you log out.
Eons Administrators can feature or un-feature a skin. When you sort by "featured", featured skins are at the head of the list, followed by non-featured skins (most-recently added first). Eons will try to feature an interesting selection of skins so that people who are in a hurry to find a skin don't have to work so hard :-)
Click the "Try it" link beneath a skin's name to see how the skin looks on your profile. From there, your options are:
* "Use it" (saves a copy and applies it to your profile);
* "Customize it" (in case you'd like to edit and preview before deciding whether to save it - or maybe save it without applying it to your profile); or
* Cancel (which returns you to the Gallery).
For each Skin in the Gallery, we generate a small graphic sample. The technique we're using to generate the samples does a fine job of showing the standard color, font and border choices. However, it has several limitations to be aware of. Background images cannot be scaled down. For this reason, we currently don't attempt to show profile banners. Also, Custom css settings cannot be shown. You'll have to click "Try it" to see the skin in all its glory.
When you use a skin from the gallery, you'll get a copy of the skin for your personal use. Feel free to customize it!
Additional notes to submitters of skins:
Be advised that the "thumbnail" view of your skin does not show Custom CSS. We strongly encourage people to convert their "MySpace" Custom CSS into Eons Skin Editor settings before submitting their skin to the Gallery. (Directions upon request.)
Eons Administrators have the authority to remove a skin from the Gallery (e.g. if it is a duplicate or has broken Custom CSS code or inappropriate images). The person who submitted a skin may also remove it - either from the My Skins page or the Gallery page.
We do not make a copy of skins when they are submitted to the Gallery. The copy you will see in the Gallery is the very same copy that's displayed on your My Skins page (and, possibly, on your profile). In other words, you may see the skin in several places, but there's only one skin. If you edit it, you're editing it for everyone.
As we said above, when someone else begins to use a skin from the Gallery, a copy is made for them. Every copy can be traced back to its original. Although we currently do not use or display this information, we may one day use it to ensure that people get proper credit for their skin design work and/or to determine the popularity of each skin.
Changes to the Skin Editor
In the Skin Editor, there are some additional choices for the Submit buttons (the green buttons at the bottom of the page that cause an action to occur):
* “Save changes” saves the skin but does not apply it to the profile (if it’s already applied to the profile, it remains so);
* “Use on my profile” saves the skin and applies it to your profile (i.e. it becomes your "current skin");
* “Save in My Skins” is an option you might see if you are customizing a Gallery skin that hasn’t yet been saved;
* “Save as a new skin” creates a new skin in My Skins and saves your edited Skin into it. This is great if you decide you want to keep the original version of the skin you're working on and create a new file to store the changes.
Due to all of these changes, the master "enable" switch (most recently termed "use this skin on my profile") is no longer is necessary and, since it might be confusing, it has been removed. If you'd like to see your naked profile, there are several ways to do it. You can create a new skin and preview it; Or you can "try" the default skin in the Gallery. If there's demand, we might provide a "view my naked profile link". Secret function: If you ever want to see someone's profile without any skin, add "?no_skin=t" to the profile URL.
Various and Sundry Changes
* On the profile, the link has been changed from "Edit My Skin" to "Change My Skin." If you do not have a customized skin on your profile, the link takes you to the Eons Skin Gallery - otherwise, it leads to My Skins.
* Eons Skin Gallery and My Skins share a common "Skins" sub-nav menu.
* There's a new "Skins" sub-menu in the Profile drop-down menu, with direct links to the Eons Skin Gallery, My Skins and the Skin Editor.
* On profiles that are currently showing a skin that is in the Eons Skin Gallery, you'll find a "Try my skin" link (at the bottom right of the "member card" area of the profile). This works exactly like clicking on the "Try it" link in the Gallery.
